Azhagiri absence taken for granted

NEW DELHI: Chemicals and fertilisers minister M K Azhagiri continues to be an embarrassment for the UPA government for his habit of ducking Parliament. However, it appears that MPs are slowly reconciling themselves to the elusive minister, as no member raised even the slightest objection to Mr Azhagiri’s absence.

As is his wont, the DMK supremo’s son failed to turn up in the LS on Thursday though the first two questions listed for the day pertained to his ministry. Minister of state Shrikant Jena fielded the questions on behalf of the Union minister. LS’s quiet acceptance of Mr Azhagiri’s absence was in stark contrast to the uproar last week when the minister failed to be there to respond to a discussion on the shortage of fertilisers and seeds in the Lok Sabha.

Not attending to business in Parliament has been something of a persistent complaint against Mr Azhagiri. However, the real problem is the minister’s lack of facility in either English or Hindi. Mr Azhagiri is understood to have written to Speaker Meira Kumar requesting that he be allowed to answer in Tamil. A second request was made just shortly before Parliament convened for the Winter session. As with his previous request, the Speaker is believed to have asked Mr Azhagiri to meet her in person. Strangely, even for this, the minister failed to turn up.

In September, the minister had asked that he should be allowed to speak in Tamil, as he wasn’t fluent in either English or Tamil. There could be a problem in acquiescing to Mr Azhagiri’s request. It would seem that ministers have to answer questions either in English or Hindi , as files containing the answers to questions are written in English and Hindi. However, the final word has not been said on the issue as the Speaker has said that the matter was still under consideration.